Pets on Quilts 2012

You were expecting NOT to see my sweet Yogi on a quilt when that is where he is most of the time??

I decided to show off an older quilt this year!  This watermelon log cabin quilt was made back in 2005… boy does time fly!!

I put this quilt out every summer!  It has a very lightweight batting inside, so it does occasionally get used when the AC is too cool!!

It was a scrap quilt for the most part…but I did buy the fabrics for the two outer borders and the fun picnic fabric complete with ants for the backing, especially for this quilt.

I quilted it with variegated red, green and white thread… probably designed for Christmas quilts…but it worked perfectly on this quilt!!

My favorite part of this quilt, though, is the free-hand / free-motion writing in the thin black inner border…

Here’s what all I wrote in that border-

“ It’s time for picnics and lemonade, beach parties and sand castles and the smell of Coppertone on your skin!

Let’s go barefooted and run through the sprinklers!

Listen to the chirping of the crickets and the buzzing of the bees around the tall Sunflowers!

Bite into a sweet slice of watermelon!  Yum!

It’s summertime, summertime, sum sum summertime!”

Those were the memories of my childhood…growing up in Florida!!

And also the memories of summers past for my husband, sons and Yogi, too!!

Make sure you check out all the other pets and quilts in this super fun blog show HERE!! 

But do vote for my sweet YOGI!!! 

Back To School … already???

Well, I am pumped!!  And not because of all the Olympics I’ve been watching every night!!

I designed and made a new table topper mini-quilt for my new metal stand to put out for September!!

OK, let me ‘splain… 
I grew up in Florida where there is pretty much no naturally visible change of seasons.  So, I always switched out my décor in the house seasonally… to remind us that it indeed is a new season! 

Then, that habit was further ingrained in my brain because every month, as an elementary school teacher, all the bulletin boards in my room had to be changed out, too.

So, I change out my décor at home a bit more than seasonally…but not quite every month!!

But, I definitely take down all my summer décor (patriotic flags, Raggedies, watermelon, ants) a few days before I would go back to work for a new school year.  It always helped me get my mind straight and ready to go back to work after summer break.

Now, I am retired!!  This will be the first fall that I don’t go back to work/school!!  But I still plan to change out my décor and put out my Back To School stuff!  Maybe then it will really hit me, that I am retired!!  Because I really don’t feel it yet!! 

I’ve also collected LOTS of school themed fabric over the years, so will be making some new lap quilts to out out in September, too!!  Better get busy, huh???

Yogi’s doing allot of spyin’ on those sneaky squirrels out on the deck, from his bed on my sewing table!   Soooo, what are you working on this summer??

Such Sewing Fun!!

Have you seen this magazine?

This time of year, with the high heat and humidity, I am always longing for autumn!!  Sooooo, magazines with fall themes on the cover… especially anything Halloween, catch my eye and find their way into my home!!

I totally fell in love with the little Halloween tabletopper quilt on the metal stand on the cover.  My experience with buying kits for quilts shown in the different Fons and Porter magazines is that if you don’t order it quickly, they’ll be sold out!!

So I ordered the kit and got it last week!!

I did change one thing, though.  Unless you look really closely, you can’t even tell there is a moon in the orange sky behind the tree… the value of the the two oranges is very close.

So, I pulled a bright yellow batik from my stash and substituted it for their orange moon.

I like the contrast much better, don’t you??

The other interesting thing about this little project is that Patrick Lose, the designer, added a layer of black tulle over the front of the quilt to give it a slightly hazy look.

I was worried how my walking foot would move over the tulle while quilting it… but it was just fine!  I just quilted horizontal lines across it as shown in the photo.

I like the bigger size of the stand, too.  The quilt is approximately 18 inches tall by 12 inches wide.  So, I’m already thinking of other seasonal designs to create using the stand!!

What other seasonal quilts would you use it for???